Spotlight Series Topic: Believe in the Power of Believing

Guest Name: Bridgid M. Ruden, ARNP

Guest Credentials: Reiki Practitioner, Inspirational Speaker & Author Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor

Discussion Details:
Bridgid shares her journey of rehabilitation post brain injury, her books she has published, and her recovery to thriving and inspiring others through her continued work today.

Benefit of Watching:
If you want to be uplifted, motivated in your own journey, and learn to thrive again post injury, this is the video for you. And if you are in a good place, then you will still benefit from watching this video. It’s hard to listen to Bridgid and not come away inspired by this beautiful soul.

Address of guest’s business:
www.bridgidruden.com

Natalie Johnston: All right, I have Bridgette with me and she is planning to be our speaker, our next free wellness speaker and I’m going to have all the details on the website and also on social media Motion Matters Physical Therapy and Wellness Facebook page. But I’m gonna start by just saying a quote that Bridget told me. And um I feel like this quote alone. Um if it doesn’t give you goosebumps and make you want to come and hear her talk, I don’t know what will. But but she these are her exact words that she just told me. I came out of a coma as a four-year-old and as a mother of three children. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t be a mom. and Bridgette suffered from a bicycle accident in 2008 and went on to have four brain surgeries and prior to that was in healthcare and I don’t want to steal the rest of her story. And so um I’m just going to turn it over and say and ask her a few questions and we’re going to have a little chat and then I hope that you guys come out and just um hear her presentation. Um I can’t wait to hear more of your story. Um but let’s start off maybe by having you tell us a little bit about um what your role was in healthcare prior to what changed your life.

Bridgid M. Ruden: I was a pediatric nurse practitioner at the University of Iowa in neonatlogy and I loved what I did. I love caring for others. Said I was going to be a nurse in second grade. So wow. has always been a big part of me.

Natalie Johnston: And and this is important, you guys, because she uses this her her history and her journey up until the accident as motivation for relearning pretty much everything. And so take us now then to just briefly kind of through your accident um if you’re willing. And um yeah, let’s start with that.

Bridgid M. Ruden: Well, I was in a bicycle accident. Thank God that lived here close to the nervous or I wouldn’t be alive. I was in a coma right away after the first two surgeries in one day. Um I don’t remember any of my hospitalizations at the University of Iowa. Thank God. Many didn’t think I’d survive. Many didn’t think actually that I would come out like I was before which in a way I didn’t.

Natalie Johnston: Yeah. So how how did you come out then?

Bridgid M. Ruden: Well I came out um literally as if I was a youth again meaning I would say three to four years of age. I had a hard time reading. I couldn’t speak. I um had a had to relearn how to walk, how to balance myself in walking.

Natalie Johnston: So you kind of lost the ability. You lost everything that you knew and had to relearn everything.

Bridgid M. Ruden: Okay. And with three children, it was devastating. I felt like a complete failure. It’s like, why God? Why am I still here?

Natalie Johnston: Yeah. Yeah. What an amazing journey you’ve been on and thank you for sharing that. I would guess that it does not ever get easier. It’s because it’s just part of your life. I don’t Is that true? Is it does it get easier to share or each because I know you share it.

Bridgid M. Ruden: Yeah. Um it’s hard to believe what has occurred since that time and I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have divine support and what I would call earth angels that have guided me in this process of healing.

Natalie Johnston: Well, let’s talk about your healing because um during your recovery process and your healing journey, you went on to wrote to write two books and so if you could just tell us the name of that first book and why you wrote that.

Bridgid M. Ruden: the first book um which I had an editor and had intense help even still today to write a sentence is a big deal to spell a word properly is still a big deal. So to me I find this all divinely um given um it’s called discovering my life’s purpose from tragedy to triumph and it gives my journey from birth forward of all that I went through to survive.

Natalie Johnston: And so through the process of writing that what was your motivation when you as you kind of went through that that writing journey, you know, what did you come out with? What did that do for you?

Bridgid M. Ruden: Oh my god, it gave me a sense of purpose. I to sit at home and just be the household maid um wasn’t enough for me. I love to help people heal in whatever way I could. and putting my word out there, sharing my experience, giving people hope when I do share inspires my spirit, my soul like I didn’t even know could occur.

Natalie Johnston: Um, and well, I’m glad you said it that way because it ties into then your prior profession and your interest in helping others and your role in in pediatric health care. Um, and so I love just how you used that as motivation and you had to make it look like what you could in in that moment. And I think that’s also developed over time too. Um, because then that takes us to your second book which is believe in the power of believing. Okay. And so take us a little bit through that book. And I know you mentioned to me that as part of writing that book um Reiki became a big part of um what you use.

Bridgid M. Ruden: The key for me after writing the book and presenting my story is often those times people forget about the book. They don’t call you to present that kind of thing. I thought what else can I do? And I had remembered that I had learned healing touch in graduate school. And then somehow I found out about Reiki, which is healing medicine through providing energy to others. That simple that we can all do. And so I someone helped me because I needed easier uh education than someone else might. Um but what I do then in this second book is that I in accomplishing that course I share my experience of what happens to people when I or when anyone would receive Raiki as far as reduction in pain as far as reduction in anxiety and depression alterations in symptoms of a disease. etc.

Natalie Johnston: So I share what happens in the book as well as what uh energy systems are within the body that can be easily helped when they’re out of balance.

Bridgid M. Ruden: When they’re out of balance. Yes.

Natalie Johnston: Well, and we were kind of talking about well who who would benefit from this presentation? And obviously anybody can come, but if you are has been through any kind of trauma or feel out of balance or maybe you have an autoimmune dysfunction, diabetes, um lots of things where the whole body is a little bit out of balance. um come and listen to Bridget talk because I think you know she offers this holistic lens through which we can talk about healing and um the things that are within our own power to do um to heal our own bodies. Would would that be kind of a fair summary?

Bridgid M. Ruden: Yes.

Natalie Johnston: Okay.

Bridgid M. Ruden: Yes. I’m honored that you are allowing me to do this.

Natalie Johnston: Well, I’m honored that you’re willing to do this. So, thank you. And you guys come on out and um I’ll have all the information um posted and along with this presentation.